Macro Events & News

FX News Today

European Fixed Income Outlook: The 10-year Bund yield is down -0.1 bp at 0.477% in opening trade. Bond markets pretty quickly shrugged off the hawkish Fed during the Asian session as the PBOC failed to follow up and as stock markets headed south. The PBOC didn’t follow the Fed and tighten policy as had been speculated, but Trump said he will confront China “very strongly” over trade in coming weeks and a number of key data of of China, including retail sales and industrial output missed estimates, which added to concerns over a softening economy. Bond markets benefited from the sell off in stocks and the fact that the PBOC refrained from tightening and even Treasury yields fell back from earlier highs. 10-year Treasury yields are down -1.8 bp and at 2.948%, below the levels seen ahead of the Fed announcement. 10-year JGBs are down -0.6 bp. German final inflation data held no surprise and was confirmed at 2.2% y/y and the data calendar also has final French inflation readings as well as U.K. retail sales, but the focus is on the ECB, which is finally expected to confirm the end of QE, leaving the focus on the forward guidance.

FX Update: The dollar has more than given back gains seen in the immediate wake of the Fed’s rate hike and hawkish-tilting guidance. EURUSD recouped back above 1.1800 after dipping to a 1.1725 low, post Fed. The euro has been trading generally firmer over the last day, gaining against the pound, Swiss franc, among other currencies, with market narratives focusing on the successful Italian auction of 30-year bonds yesterday, with the appetite for the long-dated debt seen as a good litmus test of investor sentiment on the new Italian government. Market participants are also anticipating the ECB to announce an end of QE policy today. Elsewhere, USDJPY printed a three-day low of 110.04. The biggest movement out of the main currencies has been AUDJPY, and is showing a loss of over 0.5%. The Aussie dollar has been under pressure following a sub-forecast Australian employment report. Ahead today, the ECB is expect to announce the end of QE, while U.S. President Trump will reportedly decide whether to proceed with tariffs on Chinese goods later on Thursday — and his unabashed form this week suggests he won’t hold back.

Charts of the Day

Main Macro Events Today

UK Retail Sales – Expectations – to rise 0.5% m/m in May, which would affirm a continued recovery from sharp weather-affected weakness in March, although at a decelerated pace from the 1.6% m/m growth seen in April.

SNB press conference

ECB Rate Decision and Press Conference – Expectations – Comments from ECB officials suggest that the ECB is finally ready to formally announce the end of net asset purchases. The main question in recent months has been the actual timing of the announcement, not the policy change. So the announcement of a short taper through Q4 would not really come as a surprise, leaving intense focus on the forward guidance. Mr. Draghi expected to initially wrap the announcement in rather dovish language to keep markets from running away with rate hike speculation at a time when geopolitical risks are still hanging over markets.

US Retail Sales and Unemployment Claims – Expectations – Retail sales are expected to rise 0.4% in May, following a 0.2% increase in April and a 0.7% gain in March. Initial jobless claims are estimated to be slightly changed at 224k for the week ended June 9.

Support and Resistance levels

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